Topic: It was “A New Day Yesterday”, it’s a New Joe Bonamassa today as well..
About 20 to 30 of us had gathered for the meet and greet in Green Bay, Wisconsin and I for one, felt very privileged to meet “The Man” in this small of a group of people. My group included Nic (NPB_EST.1979), his brother Tom, friend Eric and my buddy Mark. Also, Mike and his wife were there too and I had met Mike before; he is a very good friend of Rev Paul. We all stood around and chatted and then, strolling down the hall, came a very relaxed Joe Bonamassa followed by Warren Cracknell. I've said this before, but I’ll say it again here, it just boggles my mind that Joe remembers me every time our paths have crossed, so a “Hi Roy!” came out of Joe. That alone made my meet and greet! 
As Joe greeted each person and signed whatever they had for him, he not only seemed very relaxed, but was in a very happy mood. I know many of us have seen Joe a number of times and he always puts a good foot forward. After all, you don’t want to disappoint your fans and supporters, but this was a different Joe. Hey, let’s face it, I don’t know Joe that well to be able to analyze if there has been any change in him at all, but I sensed that this man has now finally grown into his own skin. Allow me to explain…
For all of these years, we all have known how great Joe Bonamassa is. Unfortunately, many in this world didn't and so it was up to us and of course, Joe’s management, to tell everyone we could about him. Still, for many years the accolades never came. It must have been very tough for Joe to play hundreds and hundreds of top notch shows, put out fantastic album after fantastic album and then see performers like Milli Vanilli receive awards for their one hit songs. A lesser person would have suffered from self doubt, but not Joe, he just kept on going. Finally two years ago, Joe attained one of his childhood dreams of playing at the famous Royal Albert Hall in front of a sold out audience. To have his entire family and many of his fans and supporters in attendance must have been a dream come true. And then finally, the world started to take notice. I mean after all, it’s not everyone that has Eric Clapton come up as a guest for their show, right? 
The times I’ve seen and heard him speak, Joe always seems to work in how “self centered and egotistical” he is. At a guitar clinic in Milwaukee a couple of years ago, he even went as far to say that when he was young, he was “the most well balanced child performer with chips on both shoulders.” I’m sure these “chips” got heavier and heavier when the accolades didn’t come after years of hard work. And maybe now, that in itself is the change that I for one see in Joe, that weight has been lifted.
In addition, Joe also has a very large heart. A couple of months ago I was talking to Carl Latz, Tallan’s dad, on the phone. I asked him if I should order his tickets and mine together for the Milwaukee show, that way we all could sit together. Carl told me because of the cost of the tickets, they were “priced out of the show.” Well, I just didn’t feel that was right considering that Joe and Tallan are friends and I knew how broken hearted Tallan would be, so I wrote an E-mail which was destined for Joe. That very same day Joe himself wrote me back and said he had, “got the Latz family sorted out.” Then, a little over a month before the show, Warren wrote me and told me that he had Carl, Doris and Tallan Latz on the Milwaukee guest list. What a wonderful thing and Tallan hit the ceiling!! 
Many in this world have now come to know what we all have known for a very long time, that Joe Bonamassa is the Greatest Guitarist around today! But he’s much, much more than that, he’s one heck of a human being and I’m very proud to call him my friend. 
The following are my pictures and videos of both the Green Bay and Milwaukee shows. In the videos, you’ll notice the Green Bay crowd was much quieter than the Milwaukee one. In Milwaukee, the sold out Pabst Theater crowd was really primed for Joe and they sure let him know it! I rank both of these shows as high up as the Royal Albert Hall show that I attended. Simply said, Fabulous Music played by the Greatest Band in the world today.
Meet and Greet pictures http://www.flickr.com/photos/8384830@N0 … 125264091/
Meet and Greet video (I gave my video camera to my friend Mark so he could capture video while I took pictures) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LleGeKo5Cc
Green Bay show pictures http://www.flickr.com/photos/8384830@N0 … 126378503/
Green Bay show videos (I was seated first row left)...
“Steal Your Heart Away” and “The Great Flood” (I think you’ll really like these two songs, I held the camera still for once!): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Xdtrs301w4
“When The Fire Hits The Sea” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VOkfBWzoJ4
“Slow Train” (You’ll see here that unlike the Milwaukee video of “Slow Train”, the Green Bay crowd was a little slow on the call and response. Milwaukee got it right away!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJyFjJ01aW0
“The Ballad Of John Henry” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6Aj3mwdd4o
“Woke Up Dreaming” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGVBmS_Lo4k
“Just Got Paid” (With some cheese on top, of course!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBxNsHAejtY
Milwaukee pictures http://www.flickr.com/photos/8384830@N0 … 141900961/
Milwaukee videos (I was seated seventh row right, but a couple of times snuck down next to the stage right)...
“Cradle Rock” (My apologies for the camera shake; I was handing out Joe fliers and rushed back to my seat with about 2 minutes to spare. I also had warned many people entering the building that they should get to their seats right away, because Joe starts right on time. I guess several of them didn’t listen.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=In_OkxuGJEU
"So It's Like That" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27pIytbwqmM
“Slow Train” (On this song I did sneak down to the right side of the stage and rested my video camera on a power cable that ran in front of the stage allowing me to take still pictures too.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKkBtHDbdZg
“Further On Up The Road” with Greg Koch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrcZ3xIz9FM
“Mountain Time” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrCjkKOhLNk
Enjoy,
Roy
P.S. Thank you Joe for making the State of Wisconsin your home again for a couple of days!
